Lord Dholakia and Norton comment on our mountainous post. The letters which really depress me are those handwritten ones personally addressed which contain almost identical material–they are usually on religious topics but can be on anything. Supporters of a particular lobby are asked to write individual letters to peers whose names begin with the same initial as theirs very often. So my correspondents often are all Ms. The first one of course I am always caught by and carefully pen a response. Then an avalanche of subtly different but with identical ideas arrives from Makins, Mason, Mottram, and inevitably more Murphys. I then either respond with an acknowledgement card or nothing. I simply don’t have the time to reply to all of them individually and I often have the feeling that a response would make matters worse.
I’m sitting doing this in the Lords’ magnificent library after a meeting with Baroness Thornton on the Health and Social Care Bill but before the Speaker’s Procession at the start of this afternoon’s debates. The Bill team have done agreat job on this one and tried hard to respond positively to suggestions. I’ve just picked up my post, rather less than usual and it contains the House Magazine, the latest newsletter from Dignity in Dying, no less than 6 individual letters from a DH minister about issues at report stage of a bill (not sure if all penned by same person, I suspect so, could have used just one envelope or none), a party invitation to celebrate the 60th year of the NHS, reminders about meetings of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Learning Disabilities (APPGLD) (this afternoon) and the APPG stroke on 1 July, a letter from a fellow peer about an amendment to a bill seeking my support, yet another tome from the Audit Commission and a pamphlet about good local government I don’t really want (the pamphlet that is, I definitely do want good local government). Most of the post goes straight in the recycling bin, perhaps 1 in 10 is interesting. I dread the weekly parcel which arrives at home during the recess. It’s envelopes which are the problem, gummed down flaps especially difficult to prise open. Surely it would be a good thing if we learnt from catalogue companies like Lands End and Cotton traders that you don’t actually need envelopes to send stuff through the post?
It seems like the biggest problem is post from the Government. Do you think that peers should be able to opt out of post from certain government departments (e.g. you might decide that you do not want to be sent anything unsolicited by the Welsh Office)? Perhaps it could be emailed as a pdf instead – easier to delete and much kinder to the trees.
They mention on Dispatches that the PM spends hours every morning reading and answering email. Really, there ought to be some form of useful computerised method of communicating with our representatives. The Conservatives’ Webcameron Project was a brilliant example of giving normal people a political voice, as much as it suffered from implementation issues and ended up being unceremoniously defenestrated back in December.
I was having this discussion earlier today – you complain that groups ask all their members to send you personal letters, but how else are we to communicate the issues that are plaguing us?
In my own case, I and several other young people I know who wish to hike in the countryside around the peak district (I live in Derby, you see) are now unable to travel by bus to the countryside, because all the bus services are jam-packed with elderly people travelling for free. Because they are of the older generation, they are naturally given precedence for getting on the bus, so we paying customers are invariably left in the lurch. I dread to imagine the effect it’s having on the bus companies, dealing with the influx of passengers, but us young people are now completely unable to travel by bus. Even when, by some miracle, you get on, the bus is crowded, hot and smelly.
Now, since this problem stems directly from a government policy regarding free bus travel for pensioners, surely the best way to act upon it is by political channels – but who do I email? Where can I go to have my views heard? Is there anything I or my friends can do to make a difference? Well, we could write to an MP or Lord, I suppose. But just one letter isn’t going to mean much. Surely we should all get together and send a number of letters…
Oh, no. That won’t work either.
Somehow, this situation has got to be fixed.
Stuart,
Somone will tell me it’s too difficult to opt out of a parliamentary mailing list for some items only, even the Welsh. I think the answer is that we should be e-mailed most stuff and then we can decide to open it ir not. Most of my serious contacts and organisations I work with always use electronic mail.
Stu, don’t expect me to be very sympathetic to your plight. Darn it, you should be studying or working when the older people are using the buses, which is usually midweek. And why shouldn’t they too have an opportunity to enjoy the Peak District? (I grew up on the Nottingham/Derby border and like you love the unbeatable countryside of the Dales and Peak)
But let’s assume that this is not a problem of older people, just of there being too many people of all ages for too few buses. Surely the thing to do is form a self help group to lobby the bus company to show them how many paying customers they are upsetting, (you may well find disappointed oldies would join you in this). There may well be a local bus users’ group already. Then you try to get support from the local tourist board, Ramblers Association, Chamber of Commerce or local business association and before you know it, you’ll have buses enough for everyone.
Before you get too carried away with your anti-older people’s campaign, you might give some thought as to why many older people benefit from financial encouragment to travel. Not everyone it’s true, there are numerous well-heeld oldies but many do not have the resources of younger people to travel to see relatives or take day trips and outings the rest of us enjoy. On the whole I don’t like special age-related benefits and would prefer a decent level of pensions instead but we are where we are and at the moment free or reduced cost travel is one way of increasing the life opportunities of older people. Derby has quite a high population of older poeple on the poorer side of comfortable, can’t you make common purpose with the ones that love the Peak district as much as you do?
I would be interested to know how this blog compares to your post – as arn’t they really one and the same – ways for the pubic to contact you?
Oh, sorry this blog’s moderate – and earlier you said your post isn’t.
This blog is moderated, even – sorry for the typo – I’m typing one handed as I fell and hurt my arm…
Baroness Murphy, thanks for your great response. Just to let you know, I don’t mean to dig on the old people – you misunderstand me. There is no ‘anti-older people campaign’ 🙂 My issue is with the ill-thought-through way in which the passenger levels on the buses has been inflated so hugely. Oh, and as regards studying/working, I have just completed my degree two weeks ago and am job hunting now – so I would have to describe myself as being ‘on the poorer side of comfortable’ too! Darn it, I have time on my hands and wish to spend part of it in the countryside… Actually, my wife keeps dragging me out the house, if I’m perfectly honest.
I take your point about forming a group to lobby the bus companies, but it’s hardly their fault, at least in the near term, as the costs of running more services is huge and they need more people to buy tickets in order to finance them. Any advancements in the quality of the bus services that has been due to investment by the government (if there has been any advancement) has been entirely undermined by the new-found popularity of the services. Contrast the buses with the trains and you’ll find the trains not only cheaper, more reliable and faster – but also less crowded. Of course, maybe I should lobby for the rebuilding of the train line from Matlock to Bakewell (and onwards from there…)
Of course, the REAL point I was trying to make wasn’t about the buses at all – although thankyou very much for taking me up on that. My point was that it is tough to find ways to feel you’re having an effect on the political system, and that’s the root cause of your influx of letters. The method by which we communicate the issues which trouble us with our representatives is broken, and needs an overhaul. I agree with tom above, incidentally – blogging is the beginning of this new system of communication. With this blog, you get to set the rough agenda, and then respond to comments which can be enlightening for us all.
We just need it more of it, and for it to be more widespread. One day, hopefully, we’ll get there, but until then you’ll be stuck with piles of letters all over the welcome mat.
Stu,
Very good luck with the job hunting.
Of course one way of influencing the political system is to join a political party but I tried that for a brief period back in the early 1970’s and found I was so far removed from the real political power that I felt invisible. Actally I know I am influenced by many letters to the Lords, especially when they contain views that haven’t been expressed before or are about a special issue that I wouldn’t otherwise hear about. MPs of course are often very helpful about individual problems….in the NHS wqhen I was a manager MPs would often take up patients’ complaints and fight on their behalf. Ultimately of course there’s the vote to change the Government to one whose policies one approves better of.But you know all this. As Tom says this is a good way of establishing an interchange of views. The blogging peers wouldn’t keep it up if we didn’t find it interesting and useful.
Baroness Murphy, so what would you advise to someone who may want to write ‘to someone’ in the House of Lords on an issue. After all, it isn’t as if I can apply the same logic as my MP. At least I know who they are, what they stand for and the fact that at the very least they have their constituency interests at heart.
With the Lords it all seems rather vague. For instance, if I did want to petition someone from the Upper House on a specific issue without wasting other Lords’ (and my own) time, what would be the best way to find out the best person to contact?